About our Programs & Curriculum
Our nature connection programs involve intentional mentored time in the outdoors. The foundation of our mentoring is finding each person’s curiosities & passions and asking questions to lead the learning. Our programs are designed to instill a sense of community; to deepen relationships to oneself, to others, & to nature; while bringing out natural powerful human attributes like empathy, happiness, & being truly helpful to name a few. Our hope is that each child/person will grow into their gifts and we design our programs to support this. Not only do people gain understanding and knowledge about the natural world and primitive skills & crafts, they also learn skills for life such as awareness, quiet mind, peacemaking, good conduct, intentional action, reflective processes, etc.
While it is easy to focus on all the amazing physical skills and artifacts that we love to practice and create (ex: fire-by-friction and baskets) perhaps a much more valuable to our everyday life skill set is learned through the ongoing nature of our outdoor programming. Together we learn about ourselves by having fun, trying new skills, listening to stories, telling stories, singing songs, laughing, playing games but also getting cold, wet, hungry, frustrated, mosquito bitten, etc. We start off in the fall exploring, mapping, and getting to know the trails, the roads, the shelters of the place where 'class' happens. We learn how to be together there, how to be comfortable with the late summer/early fall weather. Soon we head off trail, and seasons change, we find our way to the edges of what we have mapped, and walk up to the edges of what we can handle in terms of wetness, bugs, cold, etc. Kids learn what clothes they need, and take initiative to pack them. They do similarly with foods. This process of getting to know ourselves in so many different weathers, so many seasons, with new kids, with same group again and again, all add up to a self knowing that lives in us our whole lives and supports us to tend to ourselves and those around us through adversity, as well as in the fun & amazing moments (like when all the berries are in season). Call it resiliancy, call it common sense. Our programming really centers on process through which we deepen in connection in all directions with a goal of bringing alive and keeping alive the 8 attributes of connection in ourselves and our participants.
Things in nature are cyclical, and so we design our courses in this way. We have major routines, called core routines, which are anchors that we come back to again and again - many are an art & science in and of themselves and require a lifetime to master. Our activities follow the seasons, our needs, our curiosity and our passions. When it is cold we build shelter or fire, when the hickory nuts cover the forest floor we learn about & harvest them, when the sun is shining we lay back and enjoy it, when a hawk soars overhead we stop to watch, when tracks in the snow capture our attention we follow them asking each other questions, when our bodies want to settle in and relax we tell stories & have council, when we feel the urge to move we play games, when we need to have a fire we work fire-by-friction, and on and on. We strive to find the flow and harmonize with ourselves, each other, and nature.
A day in the field with us...
Our day begins & ends in a circle that includes participants & parents. In the beginning we’ll often sing a song, express gratitude in some way, play a game together, & then head out on whatever adventure the day brings. Exploring, wandering, & tending to the landscape are our baseline activities. During our time out on the land, the needs, curiosities, & passions of the group tell us what else to focus on such as various skills, games, & other core routines that broaden our horizons & deepen our experience of nature, each other, & ourselves. At our ending circle we storytell in some form to reflect on & share our story of what the day’s adventure brought us.
Core Routines
Our nature connection programs involve intentional mentored time in the outdoors. The foundation of our mentoring is finding each person’s curiosities & passions and asking questions to lead the learning. Our programs are designed to instill a sense of community; to deepen relationships to oneself, to others, & to nature; while bringing out natural powerful human attributes like empathy, happiness, & being truly helpful to name a few. Our hope is that each child/person will grow into their gifts and we design our programs to support this. Not only do people gain understanding and knowledge about the natural world and primitive skills & crafts, they also learn skills for life such as awareness, quiet mind, peacemaking, good conduct, intentional action, reflective processes, etc.
While it is easy to focus on all the amazing physical skills and artifacts that we love to practice and create (ex: fire-by-friction and baskets) perhaps a much more valuable to our everyday life skill set is learned through the ongoing nature of our outdoor programming. Together we learn about ourselves by having fun, trying new skills, listening to stories, telling stories, singing songs, laughing, playing games but also getting cold, wet, hungry, frustrated, mosquito bitten, etc. We start off in the fall exploring, mapping, and getting to know the trails, the roads, the shelters of the place where 'class' happens. We learn how to be together there, how to be comfortable with the late summer/early fall weather. Soon we head off trail, and seasons change, we find our way to the edges of what we have mapped, and walk up to the edges of what we can handle in terms of wetness, bugs, cold, etc. Kids learn what clothes they need, and take initiative to pack them. They do similarly with foods. This process of getting to know ourselves in so many different weathers, so many seasons, with new kids, with same group again and again, all add up to a self knowing that lives in us our whole lives and supports us to tend to ourselves and those around us through adversity, as well as in the fun & amazing moments (like when all the berries are in season). Call it resiliancy, call it common sense. Our programming really centers on process through which we deepen in connection in all directions with a goal of bringing alive and keeping alive the 8 attributes of connection in ourselves and our participants.
Things in nature are cyclical, and so we design our courses in this way. We have major routines, called core routines, which are anchors that we come back to again and again - many are an art & science in and of themselves and require a lifetime to master. Our activities follow the seasons, our needs, our curiosity and our passions. When it is cold we build shelter or fire, when the hickory nuts cover the forest floor we learn about & harvest them, when the sun is shining we lay back and enjoy it, when a hawk soars overhead we stop to watch, when tracks in the snow capture our attention we follow them asking each other questions, when our bodies want to settle in and relax we tell stories & have council, when we feel the urge to move we play games, when we need to have a fire we work fire-by-friction, and on and on. We strive to find the flow and harmonize with ourselves, each other, and nature.
A day in the field with us...
Our day begins & ends in a circle that includes participants & parents. In the beginning we’ll often sing a song, express gratitude in some way, play a game together, & then head out on whatever adventure the day brings. Exploring, wandering, & tending to the landscape are our baseline activities. During our time out on the land, the needs, curiosities, & passions of the group tell us what else to focus on such as various skills, games, & other core routines that broaden our horizons & deepen our experience of nature, each other, & ourselves. At our ending circle we storytell in some form to reflect on & share our story of what the day’s adventure brought us.
Core Routines
- Thanksgiving
- Exploring
- Sit Spot
- Tracking
- Nature Based Sensory Awareness Games
- Bird Language
- Edible, Medicinal & Utilitarian Plants
- Story of the Day
- Animal Forms
- Journaling
- Survival Skills, Primitive Skills & Crafts: fire-by-friction, debris huts, baskets, cordage, carving spoons, tanning animal hides, bows, arrows, and much more
- Fireside time including learning to tend & cook w/ fire
- Celebration & Song